The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was passed into law in early 2010. An osten﻿sible goal was to make more Americans insured, and the bill has succeeded in the goal. How did it accomplish this?﻿

Primarily, it required that those without insurance get it or pay a significant penalty. When you file your taxes, you now have to provide information about your health insurance. If you or your dependents don't have health insurance in 2015, you will pay a minimum of $325 per person ($162.50 for dependents), up to a maximum penalty per family of $975. Or if 2% of your income is higher than this per-person penalty, you must pay that amount instead.

There are exemptions from this penalty, which fall in three main categories.

About the Obamacare Penalty

Obamacare comes with a stiff penalty for those who different have insurance. We're going to talk about how much that penalty is, and exactly what are options are for avoiding it.

Obamacare Penalty Exemptions

The first main category of Obamacare exemptions is hardship. You can get an exemption, for example, if your income is below the tax filing threshold, insurance would cost more than 8% of your household income, or other types of general hardship.

The second category is membership in certain groups. For example, if you belong to a Native American tribe or belong to certain religious sects, you may qualify for an exemption.

The third category for exemption is membership in a healthcare sharing ministry.

Healthcare Sharing Ministry Exemption

Of course, the advantage to this third category of exemption is that you still get benefits and protection similar to normal health insurance through your membership in the healthcare sharing ministry. You can pay less for these benefits, opt out of Obamacare, and win on both fronts.

This is the reason why my wife and I joined MediShare. We wanted the benefits of health insurance, affordability, and exemption from the expensive Obamacare penalty.

Whether you join MediShare like we did, or join a different healthcare sharing ministry, I would highly recommend exploring this alternative to conventional health insurance.

If you belong to a healthcare sharing ministry, or have another alternative to Obamacare to suggest, please contact me or share it in the comments. I would be very happy to hear from you.